News and Events

Spotlight on Research Awardees

Dr. Teresa Donze-Reiner and Dr. Jessica Sullivan-Brown of the Department of Biology
were recognized for their outstanding contribution to research on at the Spotlight
on Research event held at the WCU Foundation. The Provost, Deputy Provost and State
Senator Andy Dinnamin recognized Dr. Donze-Reiner for her research on switchgrass
and Dr. Sullivan-Brown for her acquisition of a confocal microscope from the National
Science Foundation.

Fall Poster Session

The College of the Sciences and Mathematics had a very successful Fall Poster Session.
Awards went to:

Sigma Xi Best Communication to a General Audience: Christopher Catranis, Biology

Pictured is undergraduate first prize winner Abrya Field with Dr. Radha Pyati, Dean
of the College of the Sciences and Mathematics.

Faculty Receive National Geographic Explorers Grant

Dr. Heather Wholey of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology and Dr. Daria Nikitina
of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences are featured in the most recent WCU
Magazine. The professors were recently awarded a two-year, $30,000 National Geographic
Explorers Grant. The funding will enable Dr. Wholey and Dr. Nikitina to expand their
current research in the Delaware Bay area. The article can be read in full here.

Local Hack Day at WCU

Local Hack Day was a great success! Organized by the Computer Science Club and the
Women in Computer Science Club, the event had nearly 150 registrations, with hackers
between the ages of 11 to 30+ from 30 different schools. Activities were spread throughout
the day, from Mario Cart tournaments to mastering the art of cup stacking. There were
seminars by past and present West Chester University academics on a variety of topics.
WCU's Local Hack Day represented 5% of global submissions in a 7,000+ person global-hackathon.
The projects presented were outstanding, making it especially difficult to decide
a winner. WCU's Brandon Fonticoba & Christopher Falco (pictured) took first place
with Lemmie Run. Photos from the event can be found here.

EPaDel Fall Section Meeting

The EPaDel section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) held its fall
section meeting at West Chester University on November 3rd in the Business & Public
Management Building. The meeting featured the invited speakers Deanna Haunsperger
(President of the MAA), Kristin Lauter (Microsoft Research) and Alex Nakahara (The
Phillies) as well as contributed paper sessions by faculty and students, a silent
auction, student activities, and more.

2018 Distinguished Public Lecture: World Order in the Age of Trump and Trumpism

Dr. Richard Falk, a Ralph C. Milbank Emeritus Professor of International Law and Practice
and an Emeritus Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University,
spoke at a public lecture hosted by the Department of Political Science last week.
He is a world-renowned scholar of international relations and international law, former
UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights, and author of more than 40 books
and hundreds of academic articles and essays. His lecture, World Order in the Age
of Trump and Trumpism, focused on foreign policy and the new world order. The text
of his lecture has been published in the Global Policy Journal and can be found here:
https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/31/10/2018/world-order-age-trump-and-trumpism.

From the publisher’s website: Any murder causes pain and suffering that ripple through
families and communities—of both the victims and the perpetrators—but premeditated
murders cause the worst kind of damage. The Allure of Premeditated Murder is about the worst kinds of premeditated homicide in which the perpetrator plans an
attack over a period of days, weeks, or months, leaving behind massive carnage and
unspeakable suffering. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with murderers,
sociologists Jack Levin and Julie B. Wiest help readers understand why such vicious
murders occur and what we can do to minimize their incidence.

Faculty and Biology Graduate Present at the Office of Naval Research MURI Review Meeting

Dr. Frank Fish, biology, and Danielle Adams, biology graduate, presented “Constraints
on swimming performance by stiffness of body and propulsor of cetaceans and tuna”
at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiatives
(MURI) Review Meeting: Hydrodynamics of Non-traditional Propulsion Bio-Inspired Flexible
Propulsors for Fast, Efficient Swimming: What Physics Are We Missing? at Lehigh University,
Bethlehem, PA, September 27-28, 2018.

Faculty Publishes and Receives Award

Dr. Jacqueline Zalewski, sociology, will be presented with the Leigh S. Shaffer Award
this week at the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) global conference
in Phoenix, Arizona. The Leigh S. Shaffer Award recognizes scholarly contributions
published in the NACADA Journal that significantly advance the field of academic advising.

Dr. Zalewski has also recently been published. Her book,Working Lives and in-House Outsourcing: Chewed-Up by Two Masters, offers a sociological account of the process by which companies instituted and continue
to institute outsourcing in their organization.

Dr. Radha Pyati Receives Environmental Award of Merit

Dr. Radha Pyati, Dean of the College of the Sciences and Mathematics, was recently
presented with an Environmental Award of Merit for her significant impact to the community
as a scientist, educator and advocate.

In Dr. Pyati’s prior position as Chair of the Chemistry Department of the University
of North Florida (UNF) and Director of the UNF Environmental Center, Dr. Pyati also
assumed responsibility for the annual State of the River Report for the Lower St.
Johns River Basin. In addition to all of the local community and media presentations
made about the report, under her leadership the report also received international
attention from the United Nations with the integration of aspects of the report included
in a United Nations World Water Development Report – the first time a US river was
included in a world water report. Under Dr. Pyati’s leadership, the UNF Environmental
Center was expanded and the effort to have UNF join the American College and University
Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), which is a public commitment by universities to become
carbon neutral, was successful. Outside of the contributions she made while at UNF,
Dr. Pyati has been a strong advocate for the importance of science in public policy,
as well as many social issues.

For further reading, see the following news items regarding the release of the State
of the River Report for the Lower St. Johns River Basin:

Second Annual Joint Actuarial Career Day

On Friday September 21, in West Chester University’s Sykes Ballroom, eleven companies
participated in the Second Annual Joint Actuarial Career Day hosted by WCU and Arcadia
University. Of the twenty-nine WCU Actuarial, Mathematics and Applied Statistics students
who submitted resumes for review, twenty-five of them were selected for formal and
informal interviews throughout the day. Participating companies included Lincoln Financial
Group, Penn Mutual, Transamerica, iPipeline, CBIZ, Aon Pension Group, Aon Health Group,
Willis Towers Watson – Actuarial Group and Willis Towers Watson – Pension Group. Graduates
from our Actuarial Science or other Mathematics programs work at each of these companies
and in fact four of the interviewers were WCU Mathematics Department alumni.

Faculty and Graduate Student Publish

Dr. Frank Fish, biology, Kelsey Tennett, biology graduate student, and Dr. Anthony
Nicastro, physics, published a research article, “Terrestrial locomotion of the northern
elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris): limitation of large aquatically adapted seals
on land?” in the Journal of Experimental Biology (2018) 221, jeb180117, dot: 10.1242/jeb
180117. The article was also co-authored with Dr. Daniel Costa of the University of
California Santa Cruz.

Faculty Awarded a Major Research Instrumentation Grant

Dr. Jessica Sullivan-Brown (Biology) and Dr. Shawn Pfeil (Physics), along with two
faculty members at Penn State Brandywine, were recently awarded a Major Research Instrumentation
grant (MRI) from the NSF for an Olympus IXPlore SpinSR Confocal Microscopy System
with TIRF capabilities. This imaging system will be housed in the Center for Microanalysis
and Imaging Research and Training (CMIRT) facility at West Chester University and
will enable researchers to perform cutting-edge research, provide transformative undergraduate
research experiences and strengthen our already strong STEM pipeline. Examples of
research projects include (1) studying how folic acid, an essential vitamin, affects
embryonic development and (2) single-molecule biophysical studies on the folding of
a novel nucleic acid structural motif in the presence and absence of molecular crowding.
Acquisition of this microscope will expand teaching and outreach opportunities and
ensure that the affordable high quality education offered at WCU prepares students
for successful careers in the sciences.

Internationally Renowned Medicinal Chemist Visits WCU

WCU students recently had the opportunity to meet Dr. Robert Jacobs, a chemist with
over 30 years of experience in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. Dr. Jacobs
recently led a team of medicinal, synthetic and computational chemists at Anacor Pharmaceuticals,
a world leader in the discovery and development of boron-containing pharmaceuticals.
The team’s focus on the discovery and application of novel boron-containing drug molecules
resulted in a major advancement in the treatment of atopic dermatitis leading Anacor
to be acquired by Pfizer. Dr. Jacobs was invited by Dr. Thomas Simpson to join Dr.
Simpson’s Organic Chemistry Lab class. Dr. Simpson introduced Dr. Jacobs to the students
at the beginning of the class and he stayed to speak with the students and to provide
laboratory tips during the laboratory class. It was a wonderful opportunity and the
students were excited to have an industry expert drop in to visit during the class.

CSM Faculty and Student Publish

Dr. Allison Kolpas, mathematics, recently co-authored the paper “Optimal Mating Strategies
for Preferentially Outcrossing Simultaneous Hermaphrodites in the Presence of Predators”
in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology with Corin Stratton and Dr. Josh Auld, biology;
seehttps://rdcu.be/4ikr. Corin Stratton was an undergraduate researcher in mathematics at the time the paper
was written and is currently in the MA in Mathematics program at WCU. Corin was supported
by an NSF RUI Grant that Dr. Auld and Dr. Kolpas share; seeNSF.govfor a description of the grant.

Earth & Space Sciences Highlighted in PCPG Newsletter

The Department of Earth & Space Sciences was highlighted in this summer's PCPG (PA
Professional Geologists) Newsletter. To read more about WCU's part in the First Annual
PCPG Student Poster Session and Competition and the exciting work being done with
drones in Centralia, the newsletter can be found here:PCPG Summer 2018 Newsletter .